Health Literacy, Physical and Mental Health, and Activities of Daily Living Among Older Chinese Adults in Nursing Homes

Abstract

It is very important to estimate the prevalence of inadequate health literacy and determine whether or not health literacy level differences predict the physical and mental health status of older adults. A cluster sampling method was selected. A total of 1396 older adults were interviewed. Three instruments were included: the Chinese Citizen Health Literacy Questionnaire, Short Form 36, and Activity of Daily Living (ADL) Scale. The health literacy scores were very low (71.74 ± 28.35). The physical and mental health scores were all moderate. The ADLs was ⩾22, which suggests that the ADLs of older adults were poor. The major influencing factors of physical health include health literacy, ADL, alcohol consumption, household income, marital status, and former occupation. The major factors influencing mental health included ADL, former occupation, age, and smoking. Health literacy was associated with physical health, but was not associated with mental health. Improving health literacy could increase health management and health status of older adults.

Effect of health literacy among students on the adoption of osteoporosis-preventive behaviors in Iran

“…[ 32 ] On the other hand, inadequate HL is negatively associated with the adoption of preventive care. [ 33 ]…”

Are health websites credible enough for elderly self-education in the most prevalent elderly diseases?

“…A higher level of health literacy has major advantages, such as improvement of self-care skills in the elderly [ 11 , 12 ], information acquisition about chronic diseases [ 13 ], and appropriate and timely use of preventive health services [ 14 ]. Inadequate health literacy is associated with poor self-management abilities in a wide range of older adults [ 15 ], poor physical health [ 15 ], the highest mortality rate [ 14 ], and frequent readmission among elderlies [ 16 ]. As a result of these benefits and also disadvantages, people commonly obtain complementary health information from sources other than health professionals [ 17 ].…”

Functional health literacy in hypertensive elders at primary health care

“…Regarding the international setting related to functional health literacy, it is worth mentioning that this literacy is known to be important in several aspects of health promotion and diseases treatment. Thus, functional inadequate health literacy is associated with a lower level of physical activity, lower fruit and vegetable consumption, poor adherence to drug treatment, poorer chronic diseases control, worse postoperative evolution, higher health care costs, and higher mortality, including in the elderly (7)(8)(9)(10) .…”